Presenting Vs. Facilitating

Just as there’s a difference between meetings and educational events*, there are differences between presenting and facilitating.

Unfortunately, issues arising from boring presentations are the result of morphing meetings and educational events into these oddball concepts of “conferences” and “conventions.” Presentations that can work in meetings don’t travel into the area of educational events very well.

And that’s our problem. Here’s why.

A presentation is usually when an individual (sometimes a pair or a few people) formally address a group:

A vendor representative wants to win your LMS business, and visits your office to show you, your executive director/CEO, your education staff, and your education committee what their LMS can do. She leads the conversation by walking through the features of the LMS using projected images from her laptop onto a screen. This is a presentation within the context of a meeting (though you are still likely to learn something, it’s not the objective of meeting nor the presentation to teach you the system, so this is not an educational event).

You need buy-in from your board of directors to fund the new LMS to advance your association’s educational goals and they have included you on their meeting agenda. You walk them through some PowerPoint slides that show projected costs, revenue, break-even analysis, features and uses of the LMS under consideration, and other key points. This is also a formal presentation within the context of a meeting.

An expert is invited to give the keynote address at an association’s annual conference. The conference is expected to attract 1500, about a third of whom will probably attend the keynote session. The expert asks for 40 minutes, as she’s well aware that no matter how engaging she is, attention spans are short and the chairs are uncomfortable. The event organizers say they can’t justify her fee for just an hour and that the keynote session is scheduled for 90 minutes. With 500 people in the room, she does what she can to fill the time and keep everyone engaged. This is a presentation within the context of an educational event.

The first two make sense, don’t they? Sometimes we just need the facts and information, and to have the opportunity to discuss the issue or choice and clarify it. Within a small meeting, these sorts of presentations can do all of that: at the end of the presentation by the vendor rep or your presentation to the board, through questions and answers and discussion, everyone is better able to place the decision they need to make in the appropriate context.

Here’s my contention: Though Jeff offers a few good ideas, the speaker in the third situation I’ve described is limited in what she can do to open up the session:

First of all, what educational objectives frame her presentation, if any? Keynotes are usually not organized based on learning objectives. Neither are general sessions. Instead, they’re meant to “motivate” or “inspire” or “get people talking.” You can’t expect learning to occur if the intent of the session isn’t to educate or train in the first place.

Second, how can she effectively lead learning to a group of 500? Especially in an “active” way?

Be careful not to put lipstick on the pig. A keynote is a keynote is a keynote. A general session is a general session is a general session.

Which brings us to facilitating:

An LMS company representative visits your office to show you and your staff the advanced features of the system. He starts by finding out from everyone what they feel most — and least — comfortable doing in the system, and what they most want to be able to do. In an organized way, he walks everyone through the steps and tasks, then has those who are less sure of themselves perform the steps and tasks until they are comfortable with the new tasks too. This is facilitated training. This is an educational event, though it might have been on everyone’s calendar as a “meeting.”

An association member has been using Twitter at her institution to promote safety procedures at a time when several avoidable accidents have occurred. The association asks her to present on her experience at an interest or concurrent session at their next annual conference. She asks that the room be equipped with Internet access as well as the usual AV. She designs her session so that she can “show and tell” on the screen, and then has the participants practice on their own while she answers questions and helps anyone who gets stuck. In this case, a “presentation” quickly moves to “facilitated exercise.”

You’ve had such success with the launch of your new LMS that you’ve been asked to present a case study on how you scoped the project and selected your vendor. You’ve been paired with another association leader whose organization has also successfully implemented an LMS, though they came at the process from a very different angle. The program description is so popular that you find out you can expect 150 people in your session. Despite the size of the group, you don’t want to present each case study followed by Q&A — you want the attendees to learn through the process, too. So you split the room in half and deliver the problem of your case study to one half and the problem posed by your partner’s case study to the other. You ask each table to determine how they would define the scope, what vendor selection process they would implement, etc. You reserve time for various tables to report what their group discussed and the hurdles they encountered. You and your partner provide the endings to your stories as well as a chart comparing the two different processes each of you used, and decision-making aids the learners can implement or adapt for their own use. As a facilitator, you’ve adapted the large group as best you can to accommodate participation in the case studies via practice with the process, rather than just “presenting.”

We’ll often be in non-ideal situations, but knowing we have choices is key. Understanding how to implement those choices will benefit our members in ways they can’t even guess right now.

And it starts with identifying…

Where we are: Is this a meeting or an educational event?

Why we’re there: Is the purpose to make a decision? To motive or inspire people? To open up conversations? Or to elevate someone’s skill level?

Presenting has its place. Let’s just make sure we leave it there.

* Quick review: Meetings are held for the purpose of advancing business, are guided by an agenda, and sometimes use Robert Rules of Order as a organizational structure. Educational events are held for the purpose of enhancing knowledge and understanding and elevate skill levels, are guided by learning objectives, and are organized based on the the type of content and delivery medium.